Fig. 5.

Terminal pathway complement activation in patient samples. EDTA-plasma samples from the patients (serum for the first sample from patient 2) at the acute and follow-up stages and from healthy laboratory personnel (controls) were analyzed for terminal complement complex (TCC) levels by ELISA. After excluding value from the single serum sample the difference between acute stage samples and controls was highly significant (p < 0.001; unpaired Student's t-test). Also, the difference between the follow-up samples and controls was significant (p < 0.05), while that between acute stage and follow-up samples was not. Pt = patients. The results indicate complement activation during the acute stage that continues at a lower intensity to the follow-up stage.